Source: The Sangai Express
New Delhi, August 17:
Representatives of Manipur University Students' Union raised their voice against the prolonged imposition of AFSPA and saluted Th Manorama Devi who was killed by Assam Rifles in their custody a year ago, while demanding scrapping of the draconian Act during the March to Parliament demonstration organised under the banner of All India Students' Association (AISA) today.
Though the occasion was to protest dilutions of the Employment Guarantee Bill and to denounce the recent Supreme Court ruling freeing private educational institutions from the Constitutional obligation of fulfilling SC/ST quotas and instead introducing NRI quotas, the demand for scrapping AFSPA gain momentum among the agitating students coming from allover the country.
Later addressing a meeting, MUSU president Ashok spoke about the state of democracy in campuses and society in Manipur.
He said that students in Manipur lived under the shadow of Army rifles and the young school and college students are often picked up and disappeared by Army personnel.
A year after Manorama's killing, her killers are yet to be punished, he rued.
He also complained that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh promised central University status to Manipur University, but he is yet to keep that promise and the UP A Government's promise of a 'humane face' has been exposed by its refusal to scrap AFSPA.
The Reddy Committee report on AFSPA is yet to be made public, he added.
Another student leader from Manipur Kapu spoke about the state of terror there.
He lamented the fact that the Central Govt was setting the people of North East against one another by playing the politics of Communalisation.